WHAT IS A MODERN SOCIAL WORKER COMFORTABLE WITH - UNIVERSALISM OR RELATIVISM? A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE ARTICLE, “POSTMODERNISM, CRITICAL THEORY AND SOCIAL WORK” BY JIM IFE
Journal Title: Social Affairs - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 5
Abstract
The author, Prof. Jim Ife, starts this article claiming that, “in the current social, economic and political climate of change and instability, many of the old certainties of social work practice no longer seem relevant. The apparently unproblematic commitment to ideals such as human rights and social justice, the idea that empirically verifed social science could guide practice, and the assumption of a universalist and prescriptive code of ethics no longer seem to meet the needs of practitioners” (p. 211). In such a situation, the author believes, the postmodern worldview provides a comfortable practice framework. However, while postmodernism provides some comfort, the most serious concern is that it too may contradict certain social work values. In it, the oppressive power of “Meta Narratives” which reinforce the notion of a universal reality is rejected. Instead it accepts the multiple realities proposed by Relativism. It does not focus on human factors interpreted through positivist or empirical social sciences because of the belief that human factors cannot be understood by being away from them. It must be a subjective interpretation and a process of understanding in which they are deconstructed and reconstructed. Postmodern thinking rejects the notion that there is no single medicine for all human “ill-beings” prescribed by a uniform and dominant discourse of modernist thinking which is characterized by economic rationalism, managerialism, professionalism and conservatism.
Authors and Affiliations
Sarathchandra Gamlath
Keywords
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